good afternoon i'm vashon brown with the midday news a special welcome if you're watching on
onespotmedia.com reactions now to the changes to the cockpit contra boundaries and government's
decision to abandon the dry harbor mining project mining minister Robert Montague made
the announcement in his sectoral presentation in the lower house last evening however the Jamaica
Environment Trust JET views the development as a small win as there are still lingering issues
oshane masters has that report it's been the case of lobbyists versus the government over two
Eco gems the dry harbour mounted in zentana and the cockpit country in cholonee both areas also a
minus paradise addressing parliament on Wednesday mining minister Robert Montague announced changes
to the boundaries covered by the special mining release sml in the vicinity of the cockpit country
we have modified sml 173 this change has resulted in approximately six thousand hectares of land
being removed from the original sml but this will be replaced with additional lands to the company
with sml 71 and sml 71 is adjacent to the east of where the company is currently mining in sml 165.
i will take you there by replacing what was removed we have satisfied not only the
provisions of the law but the establishment agreement and the conditions of the license
for the jamaica environment trust this is but a small win obviously we're very
happy about the carpet country decision and the potential impacts to the rio grande watershed
but i i would really have to see where are the new mining areas you know and who who and what is
going to be affected by that before i could really really celebrate if you forget what i mean i also
would like to know if once these details are made clear it's the boundary for the carpet country
protected area is going to be amended to include this area that they say won't still won't be made
in sml 173. she says jet will be using the access information act to get details on the proposed
area which will be mined the other thing though is that is the um the corporate country protected
area which we you know was declared in late 2017 and the grown true thing i think has either
just been completed or is almost completed if it's going to be expanded then that means another set
of grown true thing and we really would like to see this this area declared under law and starts
to have discussions on a buffer zone around it as for the dry harbor mountain mining project the jet
chairman says our organization is happy with the government's decision to abandon its plan to issue
a quarrying license for the area minister montague told the house of representatives
that the move was based on a directive from prime minister andrew holness rasheed masters tvj news.
Left for dead; the plight of scores of Jamaicans seeking renal dialysis at public facilities but
the waiting list for treatment is overwhelming it's why opposition spokesman on health Dr.
Morais Guy is proposing that the Government expanded treatment options to save more lives
he was making his sectoral presentation to parliament last evening the opposition spokesman
on health lamented the lengthy wait time for persons requiring dialysis treatment at public
health facilities he reasoned that in the case of a kingston public hospital which sees some 2
000 renal dialysis patients per year persons have to wait for as much as four years to be added to
the list for treatment many have died during this period waiting for acceptance into the program at
the university hospital of the west indies it is around six thousand patients per year with
another one thousand waiting to be admitted in the program and their wait time is around two years
it is hard to say madam speaker but it needs to be said but someone has to die for a space to
be created he says treatment facilities at the corner regional and mandeville hospitals are
also overwhelmed the minister in his presentation spoke to the expansion of spanish town hospital
and san antonio bay hospital which is commendable but no made no mention of any renal dialysis
facility at either of those two madam speaker this is a serious oversight and needs immediate
correction dr guy further pointed to the high cost of treatment at private facilities
what will happen to the thousands who cannot afford a fifteen thousand dollars per session
in the private sector and that has to perform twice weekly consider this madam speaker it will
cost each each patient about a hundred and twenty thousand dollars per month how many persons over
sixty years and living on a pension can afford it it's why he is recommending the government
improve and expanded the dialysis treatment at public health facilities ocean masters tvg news
minister without portfolio in the ministry of economic growth and job creation ever at
warmington is coming under fire after a video surfaced showing him and the
police in a confrontation in it he's on the phone apparently speaking with
minister of national security dr horace chang complaining about being harassed by the police
no
now it's still unclear what led to the confrontation but there
are concerns about the manner in which mr warmington addressed to the police officers
it's now time for a break but please stay with us more local stores when we return
welcome back and we're continuing the news stakeholders in the education sector are blasting
the caribbean examinations council cxe over its decision to delay external exams by two weeks
both the jamaica teachers association jta and the caribbean union of teachers say the extension will
make little to no difference for students sandy williams reports on wednesday the caribbean
examinations council cxc announced june 28 as the new date for external exams which were originally
scheduled for june 7. but stakeholders in the education sector in jamaica and the caribbean
are expressing a disappointment the jamaica teachers association jta and the caribbean
union of teachers cut argue that the two-week delay is inadequate the timeline by itself as
i have indicated is not the answer to solve all the problems it would have to be the timeline
along with changes in the structures of the papers so we had recommended what should happen
with paper one that possibly you need to have 90 questions and students to select 60 from or they
rationalize topics that will be tested on paper two are they the same topics that should be tested
on paper one in fact quite a number of students are still disappointed based on our surveys
because they were often already mentally prepared and and want to get the examinations out of the
way some of them say the two weeks will make some kind of a difference but in and of itself
it would not address the major concerns that that exists president of jta jasper gabriel
says the changes to the structure of the exams would be more beneficial to students everybody was
looking forward to the topics that are released to be more targeted as well as adjustments to
the structure in terms of paper one and paper two and even if there was no extension given
along with these adjustments it would have gone a far away in terms of allowing the examinations
to be fair and more equitable for all our students and the president of cut dr garth
anderson says the decision made by the examination body has raised questions about its leadership
i think what cxc would have demonstrated here is a lack of technical competence and leadership to
pivot like other examination bodies would have done across the world they have made
themselves in an anomaly cxc is an anomaly with what is happening across the world giving normal
examination in a normal time simply they have taken decisions that are convenient to them
and not in the best interest of our students cxc has also extended the deadline for school-based
assessments for c-sec and cape by over a month cxc said markers will take into consideration
the mental health of students when grading their papers sandy williams tvj news